Miles ‘Burt’ Marshall, 73-year-old upstate New Yorker, indicted for alleged $95 million Ponzi scheme

AP Photo/Michael HillFor decades, Miles “Burt” Marshall was the man you went to see in a stretch of upstate New York if you had some money to invest but wanted to keep it local

Working from an office in the charming village of Hamilton, down the road from Colgate University, Marshall prepared taxes and sold insurance

His clients spread the word to family and friends

Have a retirement nest egg? Let Burt handle it

He’ll invest it in local rental perties and your money will grow faster than in a bank

Marshall was friendly and folksy

He gave away gift bags with maple syrup, pickles and local honey in jars labeled with cute sayings , “Don’t be a sap

For per insurance coverage call Miles B

Marshall.” “He would tell you all the other people that invest

Fire companies invest

Doctors invest,” said one client, Christine Corrigan. “So you’d think, ‘Well, they’re smart people

They wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t okay to do … Why are you going to be the suspicious one?” Then it all came crashing down

Marshall owed almost 1,000 people and organizations $95 million in principal and interest when he filed for bankruptcy tection two years ago, according to the trustee’s filings

This summer, the 73-year-old man was indicted on charges that his investment was a Ponzi scheme

He could face prison time if convicted

Marshall’s lawyers declined to

Many investors were Colgate fessors, laborers, office workers or retirees

Some lost their life’s savings of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars

Now they’re wondering how someone who seemed so reliable, who held annual parties for his clients and even called them on their birthdays could betray their trust. “You look at life differently after this happens

It’s , ‘Who do you trust?’” said Dennis Sullivan, who was owed $40,000. “It’s sad because of what he’s done to the area.” A reliable local man Marshall and his wife d in a brick Victorian, blocks from his office

His parents had run an insurance and realty in the area and the Marshall name was respected locally

Though he quit college, he was a federally enrolled tax fessional

To many in the area, he seemed knowledgeable money and kept a neat office. “He had French doors and a beautiful carpet and a big desk and he just looked he was sperous and reliable,” Corrigan said

People got back missory notes — slips of paper with the dollar amount written in

Withdrawals could be made with 30 days’ notice

People could choose to receive regular interest payments

Participants saw the transactions as investments

Marshall has called them loans

For many years, Marshall made good on his mises to pay interest and cess withdrawals

More people took part as word spread

Sullivan recalls how his parents gave Marshall money, then he did, then his fiancee, then his fiancee’s daughter, then his son, and even his snowmobile . ”Everybody gets snowballed into it,” Sullivan said

A number of investors d in other states, but had connections to the area

But it stood out later as rates dropped

Marshall told a bankruptcy ceeding that he assumed appreciation on his real estate would more than cover the debts. “That’s obviously false now,” he said, according to filings, “but that’s what I always thought.” Reckoning with more than $90 million in debt The money stopped flowing by 2023

As news of his illness spread, there was a run on note holders asking for their money back

The bankruptcy trustee, Fred Stevens, blamed Marshall’s insolvency on incompetent practices and borrowing from people at above-market rates

Money was funneled into his other es and he spent hundreds of thousands of investors’ dollars on personal expenses, including airline travel, meals out, groceries and yoga studios, according to secutors

Marshall’s clients feel betrayed. “We left it there so that it would accumulate

Well, it accumulated in his pocket,” Barbara Baltusnik said of her investment

Marshall’s and perties were sold as part of bankruptcy ceedings, which continue

People who gave Marshall their money stand to recoup around 5.4 cents on the dollar from the asset sales

Potential claims against financial institutions are being pursued, according to the trustee

Baltusnik said she and her husband were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars and now she wonders how she will pay doctors’ bills

Sullivan’s mother moved in with him after losing her investment

In Epworth, Georgia, retiree Carolyn Call will never see money she hoped would help augment her Social Security payments

She found out Marshall though an uncle who d in upstate New York. “I’m just able to pay my bills and keep going,” she said. “Nothing extravagant

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